A Piano in the Pyrenees: The Ups and Downs of an Englishman in the French Mountains

Inspired by breathtaking views, and dreaming of finding love and romance in the mountains, Tony Hawks impulsively buys a house in the French Pyrenees. Here he imagines he will finally fulfil his childhood fantasy of mastering the piano, untroubled by the problems of the world. However, Tony's account of stumbling into the world of overseas home ownership is perhaps best heard as a useful manual of how not to go about buying a house abroad.

Once Upon a Time in the West...Country

Comedian and best-selling author Tony Hawks is embarking on his greatest adventure yet - moving from city life in London to deepest Devon in the West Country. You can take the man out of the city, but is the countryside ready for him? Comedian and born-and-bred townie Tony Hawks is not afraid of a challenge - or indeed a good bet. He's hitchhiked round Ireland with a fridge and taken on the Moldovan football team at tennis one by one.

Free Country: A Penniless Adventure the Length of Britain

The plan is simple. George and Ben have three weeks to cycle 1000 miles from the bottom of England to the top of Scotland. There's just one small problem - they have no bikes, no clothes, no food, and no money. Setting off in just a pair of Union Jack boxer shorts, they attempt to rely on the generosity of the British public for everything from food to accommodation, clothes to shoes, and bikes to beer.

Here Comes the Clown: A Stumble Through Show Business

In 2004 Dom Joly wrote a spoof autobiography called Look At Me, Look At Me. In Here Comes the Clown, he takes up the story of his life from 14 January 2000 when the very first episode of Trigger Happy TV aired on Channel 4 and everything changed for him. Suddenly he was famous; reality was weirder than any fiction he could conjure up. This is the story of what happened next, through snippets of recollections from his adventures in show business....

Fibber in the Heat: Following England in India - A Blagger's Tale

Fanatical about cricket since he was a boy, Miles Jupp would do anything to see his heroes play. But perhaps deciding to bluff his way into the press corps during England's Test series in India wasn't his best idea. By claiming to be the cricket correspondent for BBC Scotland and getting a job with the (Welsh) Western Mail, Miles lands the press pass that will surely be the ticket to his dreams. Soon, he finds himself in cricket heaven - drinking with David Gower and Beefy, and sharing bar room banter with Nasser Hussain.

I Left My Tent in San Francisco

It's 1989, and Emma and her best friend, Dee, head to the USA to make their fortune. But completely inept and virtually unemployable, they discover that they can't even get a job in McDonald's. Forced to travel from California to New York with only pennies in their pockets, they bounce from scrape to scrape, surviving on their wits and the kindness of strangers. Bad luck and misfortune throw everything their way - snakes, earthquakes, black magic and incontinent dogs.

Britty Britty Bang Bang: One Man's Attempt to Understand His Country

Mock the Week and Outnumbered's Hugh Dennis with an hilarious and insightful exploration of the changing image of Britain and Britishness.

Hugh Dennis has secretly been worrying about what being "British" meant for nearly a decade, ever since his friend Ardal O'Hanlon had told him in passing that he was the most British person he had ever met. Hugh was unclear whether he was being praised, teased, vaguely insulted, or possibly all three - because it has always been very difficult to know how to feel about being British.

Dave Gorman Vs The Rest of the World

Remember when you were a kid, and you used to go round to a friend's house to see if they were playing? Well, as adults we're not supposed to do that. Which is a shame... because Dave Gorman likes playing. He REALLY likes games. So he knocked on the biggest door you could ever imagine - the internet - and asked 76,000 people if they fancied a game. This is the story of what happened next.

So, Anyway...: The Autobiography

John Cleese describes his nerve-racking first public appearance, at St Peter's Preparatory School at the age of eight and five-sixths; his endlessly peripatetic homelife, with parents who seemed incapable of staying in any house for longer than six months; his first experiences in the world of work, as a teacher who knew nothing about the subjects he was expected to teach; his hamster-owning days at Cambridge; and his first encounter with the man who would be his writing partner for over two decades, Graham Chapman.

Scary Monsters and Supercreeps

Dom Joly sets off round the world again, but this time he's not looking to holiday in a danger zone - he's monster hunting. In Scary Monsters and Super Creeps he heads to six completely different destinations to investigate local monster sightings.

The Tent, The Bucket and Me

For the '70s child, summer holidays didn't mean the joy of CentreParcs or the sophistication of a Tuscan villa. They meant being crammed into a car with Grandma and heading to the coast. With just a tent for a home and a bucket for the necessities, we would set off on new adventures each year stoically resolving to enjoy ourselves. For Emma Kennedy, and her mum and dad, disaster always came along for the ride no matter where they went.

The Road to Little Dribbling: More Notes From a Small Island

Twenty years ago Bill Bryson went on a trip around Britain to celebrate the green and kindly island that had become his adopted country. The hilarious book that resulted, Notes from a Small Island, was taken to the nation's heart and became the best-selling travel book ever and was voted in a BBC poll the book that best represents Britain. Now, to mark the 20th anniversary of that modern classic, Bryson makes a brand-new journey around Britain to see what has changed.

The Reluctant Hermit says:"I think Bill would rather have stayed at home."

Look at ME, Look at ME!

At last in audio - Dom Joly's no holds barred autobiography of a man with the ego of Napoleon and the talent of Darren Day with a brand new exclusive introduction. Dom Joly reveals how he murdered his Armenian nanny before his second birthday, how as a student he inadvertently gave Kurt Cobain the inspiration for 'Smells like Teen Spirit', how as a producer for ITN he mistook John Major for a large lizard.

Land of the Midnight Sun: My Arctic Adventures

In an adventure of a lifetime, Alexander Armstrong heads north into an ever more hostile Arctic winter to explore the farthest reaches of the globe. In an epic journey, he navigates some of the Earth's toughest terrain, first travelling through the glittering landscape of Scandinavia then on to the isolated islands of Iceland and Greenland, as far as the infamously treacherous Northwest Passage. His final frontier is Canada and Alaska, where his journey ends on the international dateline between the USA and Russia.

Hope and Glory: The Days That Made Britain

In Hope and Glory, Stuart goes in search of the places, people and events of the century we have just left behind that have shaped the look and character of modern Britain. From the death of Victoria to the demise of New Labour, he takes a single event from each decade of the 20th century that offers up a defining moment in our history and then goes in search of its legacy today.

The Dark Tourist: Sightseeing in the World's Most Unlikely Holiday Destinations

Ever since he can remember, Dom Joly has been fascinated by travel to odd places. In part this stems from a childhood spent in war-torn Lebanon, where instead of swapping marbles in the schoolyard, he had a shrapnel collection -- the schoolboy currency of Beirut. These early experiences left Dom with a profound loathing for the sanitized experiences of the modern-day travel industry and a taste for the darkest of places.

I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue Treasury: Classic BBC Radio Comedy

A bumper collection of classic fun and games from one of BBC Radio 4's best-loved and most enduring comedy panel games. The inimitable Humphrey Lyttelton is in the chair for these 36 hilarious editions, collected together for the first time. He presides over regular players Tim Brooke-Taylor, Barry Cryer, Graeme Garden and Willie Rushton, plus guests including Stephen Fry, Tony Hawks, Andy Hamilton, Paul Merton, Sandi Toksvig and Jeremy Hardy.

Neither Here nor There

In Neither Here nor There Bill Bryson brings his unique brand of humour to bear on Europe as he shoulders his backpack, keeps a tight hold on his wallet, and journeys from Hammerfest, the northernmost town on the continent, to Istanbul on the cusp of Asia.

Absolute Pandemonium: The Autobiography

A memoir from national treasure Brian Blessed. There is no one quite like Brian Blessed. He's an actor, film star, trained undertaker, unlikely diplomat, secret romantic, martial artist and mountaineer. He's also a brilliant storyteller who will - and you must brace yourself - simply leap out of the story at you. Ready? Then listen to Absolute Pandemonium and you'll be taken on a riotous journey from his childhood, growing up the son of a miner in Goldthorpe, to finding fame in Z-Cars.

ReadingWild says:"Forget who you think the author is...this is incredible."

In each episode of this BBC Radio 4 series, Mark Steel visits a UK town and researches its history, heritage and culture, after which he performs a bespoke evening of comedy for the local residents. Mark's destinations in series 3 & 4 are Berwick-upon-Tweed; Holyhead; Basingstoke; Douglas on the Isle of Man; Bungay; Wigan; Whitehaven; Tobermory; Corby; Handsworth; Ottery St. Mary and Chipping Norton. There's also a special episode recorded at the Edinburgh Festival.

Notes From a Small Island

After nearly two decades in Britain, Bill Bryson, the acclaimed author of such best sellers as The Mother Tongue and Made in America, decided it was time to move back to the United States for a while. This was partly to let his wife and kids experience life in Bryson's homeland, and partly because he had read that 3.7 million Americans believed that they had been abducted by aliens at one time or another. It was thus clear to him that his people needed him.

Michael Palin: Pole to Pole

In Pole to Pole we join Michael Palin on the second of his epic challenges. Travelling from the North Pole to the South Pole, he experiences every extreme the globe has to offer. As he crosses 16 countries by train, truck, raft, Ski-Doo, barge, balloon and bicycle, he meets a diverse range of fascinating characters and landscapes while his own endurance is tested to the limit. With his customary aplomb, he plunges himself into the local cultures, starring in a crayfish documentary in Novgorod, attending a baby-rolling ceremony at a Cypriot wedding, and consulting an Mpulugu witch-doctor.

Shoutykid (1) - How Harry Riddles Made a Mega-Amazing Zombie Movie

Meet the funniest kid in fiction and follow his life's ups and downs told through laugh-out-loud letters, emails, texts and more! Her Majesty, hi there My name is Harry Riddles and I don't normally do this kind of thing, but I think we might need some help.... Harry 'Shoutykid' Riddles has a few problems: he needs money to make his movie, My Pet Zombie, his dad needs a job before they lose their home, and the school play is going to end in disaster unless there are some major changes to the leading actors!

Too Much Information

Nowadays, the world is full of people trying to tell us things. So much so that we have taught our brains not to pay much attention. After all, click the mouse, tap the screen, flick the channel and it's on to the next thing. But Dave Gorman thinks it's time to have a closer look, to find out how much nonsense we tacitly accept. Suspicious adverts, baffling newspaper headlines, fake twitter, endless cat videos, insane TV shows where the presenters ask the same questions over and over.

Publisher's Summary

Have you ever made a drunken bet? Worse, still, have you ever tried to win one? In attempting to hitchhike round Ireland with a fridge, Tony Hawks did both, and his foolhardiness led him to one of the best experiences of his life. Joined by his trusty travelling companion-cum-domestic appliance, he found himself in the midst of a remarkable adventure, at times emotional, at times inspirational, but more often than not, downright silly.

Only in the magical land of Ireland could such a notion lead to such fruitful adventure. Here is his record of the unlikely pair's fortunes as they made their way from Dublin to Donegal, from Sligo through Mayo, Galway, Clare, Kerry, Cork, Wexford, Wicklow, and back again to Dublin.

In their month of madness, Tony and his fridge met a real prince and a bogus one; they surfed together and entered a bachelor festival; the fridge was christened; and one of the pair had sex without the other knowing. And unexpectedly, the fridge itself became a momentary focus for the people of Ireland. As the days rolled by, the fridge grew into a personality in its own right, developing its own identity and bringing people together wherever it went.

What the Critics Say

"A lively celebration of contemporary Irish society and the goodwill of its people." (Publishers Weekly)
"Not just brilliantly written, but far too hilarious to read alone in a public place." (The Independent)
"Round Ireland with a Fridge...is a sort of alternative Michael Palin tome and a far better read than you would expect. It is part autobiography, part travelogue, and part Guinness-addled ramblings." (Irish Times)

This book is fantastic, as it says on the cover - you shouldn't read it alone on a bus. I listened to it on a plane to Italy and laughed so hard the guy next to me asked to move!!!
This book inspired numerous stupid challenges at work, including having your picture taken by a sign with the name Shennington on it and being photographed by a soap star holding a kitchen utensil. Paddy from Emmerdale thought I was really weird when I presented him a frying pan.
Beware what this book can do to you.

Excellent audio book and one we listen to often, its narrated very well by the author of the book and makes it a very enjoyable listen.

My husband read this book years ago and enjoyed it thoroughly so we had to get the audio book version as well. He enjoyed it and having Tony Hawks as the narrator adds a new dimension to the book. I enjoyed it also having never read the book and its not even the kind of thing I would usually go for. We would both recommend this audio book and it really is great to listen too.

We listened to this while driving round Ireland on our honeymoon. The story is quite surreal but entertaining and moves at a decent speed. The narration is good and there are no distractions in the way of unrequired sound effects or music.